Dear Colleagues

Whilst many Occupational Health professionals were at the Health at Work Conference at the NEC in mid-March, news of the budget was emerging. It was fantastic to hear the chancellor recognise the importance of occupational health during his budget speech. More details will be released in due course, but initial information indicates that there will be more investment to ensure Occupational Health is available to more workers nationally. In addition, to ensure OH suppliers can meet the potential future demand for services, the consultation will also consider the supply of OH professionals, including through the long-term workforce plan for the NHS. 

So, as we head into this new financial year, it remains an exciting time for OH and hopefully the work that we have all been undertaking in the Growing OH & Wellbeing agenda over the last 12 months will position us well in responding to whatever lies ahead.

Best wishes

Hilary

Chair, NHS Health at Work Network

In this edition:

1. Network Membership Renewals: Prices Frozen for 2023/24!
2. Sharing Good Practice
3. HSE ‘Asbestos and You’ Campaign
4. Meet our South East Coast Board Rep Nadine Williams
5. Member Case Study: North London ICS
6. MoHaWK
7. Chlorine-Based Disinfectant Chemicals
8. Practical OH Law Certificate: £200 Discount for Network Members
9. Looking After Your Team’s H&WB: A Guide 

10. Courses, Resources and Articles

Thank you to many of you who have been quick off the mark in renewing your Network membership for 2023/24 – we’ve had a brilliant response! If you haven’t already renewed, please get in touch with admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk to receive the renewal form. 

Membership prices have been frozen for the coming year, and the £200 discount for early-bird renewals closes at the end of April.

Full membership is the only way to guarantee your place at our highly acclaimed annual conference on 13 and 14 September 2023, with guest speakers including Professor Neil Greenberg, Professor Diana Kloss MBE, Professor Ira Madan from the London Centre for Work and Health, Dr. Ali Hashtroudi, and more to be announced! 

If you haven’t previously been a member, or are interested in joining the 90% of NHS occupational health teams in England who subscribed to our Network in 2022, please get in touch via admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk        

2.    Sharing Good Practice

Following our regional engagement events over the last few months, you have been asking us to develop a broad range of template documents for you to use in helping to run your occupational health services. The work has started, and so far has been reviewing your requests on Exposure Prone Procedures, Contamination Incidents and International Recruitment Standards. We hope to start sharing some initial documents next month. 

Request for Job descriptions: As part of this project, many of you indicated that having access to a range of job descriptions would be very helpful as you start to consider using different professionals in an OH setting. Therefore, if you have any of the following job descriptions and are happy to share them, then please send them to admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk           

• Head of Occupational Health 
• Nurse Manager
• Nurse Specialist
• Mental Health Nurses 
• Advanced Mental Health Practitioner
• Occupational Psychologist 
• Rehabilitation Specialist 
• Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners
• Occupational Therapist 
• Physiotherapist
• OH Technician 
• Clinical Psychologist 
• Counsellor 
• Disability Adviser / Neuro-Diversity Support officer

3.    HSE ‘Asbestos and You’ Campaign

The HSE has launched a new campaign to remind people working in construction trades to manage the risks associated with asbestos. 

Despite it being banned in the building industry since 1999, figures show that 5,000 people a year still die from asbestos-related diseases. It didn’t disappear when it was banned in the UK and we know that asbestos remains in millions of homes and buildings.  

Those carrying out repairs or refurbishment work are at a higher risk of disturbing asbestos, especially when working in houses. Builders, carpenters, electricians, joiners, plasterers, plumbers and roofers are just some of the trades being urged to take the risks of asbestos seriously.

The campaign particularly wants to reach those who started their careers from the year 2000, after the use of asbestos was banned, so they know the risk still remains.

Visit the Asbestos and You website for more information about the campaign and how you can support it. You can also:

• Download the HSE new ‘quick guide for trades’
• View the Asbestos essentials guidance 
• Read HSE's asbestos campaign press release 
• Sign up for asbestos campaign updates by subscribing to the HSE e-bulletin

4.    Meet our South East Coast Board Rep Nadine Williams

“We recently had our Network regional meeting bringing together members from Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Some of the issues we discussed had not been experienced by all Trusts. This provides members with valuable knowledge about what is happening outside of our own services and what we may also face in the coming weeks and months and allows us to do some forward planning. The meetings are such a great way to feel like we’re not working in silos and that we can all share and learn from each other’s experiences.”

Contact Nadine or any of our Board members here

5.    Member Case Study: North London ICS

Network Members across North Central London Integrated Care System (ICS) are developing a consolidated occupational health service.

In 2019, North Central London ICS set itself an ambition of establishing a single, consolidated, clinically excellent OH service that consistently delivers high-quality, cost-effective services to all NHS staff working across the ICS.

You can read more here

6.    MoHaWK

Round 22 is open and available for data input. As per previous rounds we will leave this open until the commencement of the following round as this appears to have worked well for many services who are still balancing work demands, and allows greater flexibility for data submission.  The briefing notes for Round 22 are here. If you have any specific queries then please contact hilary.winch@nnuh.nhs.uk

7.    Chlorine-Based Disinfectant Chemicals

NHS Employers have published their guidance on the safe use of chlorine-based disinfectant chemicals, available here

8.    Practical OH Law Certificate: £200 Discount for Network Members

The At Work Partnership is delighted to offer NHS Health at Work network members a discount of £200 + VAT for places on their Practical OH Law Certificate. This practical three-day qualification is designed to provide OH professionals with an in-depth understanding of OH law at work and will give a detailed comprehension of your legal responsibilities. This is a virtual course running 26 to 28 June inclusive.

Book and pay by 8 May 2023 to qualify for the early bird rates! More information is available from: https://bit.ly/PracOHLaw23

9.    Looking After Your Team’s H&WB

NHS England have developed a guide for NHS teams to look after their own health and wellbeing. This interactive guide has been developed to support teams to improve their health and wellbeing, through a culture-change approach. It is for all teams working in healthcare.

“It empowers people to ask questions, take action and to feel valued.” Feedback from a pilot site

Being healthy and well is different, for different people, at different times and we know that one size doesn’t fit all. This guide empowers staff to enable their team to come together to shape their health and wellbeing journey.

If you have an NHS e-mail account, you can view the guide here

10. Courses, Resources and Articles

Health Education England – Free Annual Virtual Conference, 12 May, 09.00 – 16.00 – Hold the date for the HEE Annual Virtual Conference ‘Looking Back to Look Forward’ which revisits important themes to review the recent past and build up to the future. 

• Health and wellbeing
• Sleep and fatigue
• The multidisciplinary team and multidisciplinary education 

Please note to book a place you will need to create an account with Accent Course Manager -https://accent.hicom.co.uk/coursemanager/live/hee/web

If you already have an account with Course Manager please  Click here to book your place.

If you have any problems booking your place please email Sonia.Ahmad@hee.nhs.uk

Spring Budget 2023 Factsheets – It was great to see OH featuring so prominently in the Chancellor’s budget. Read more in the Disability White Paper and Labour Market Measures factsheets.

Time to Focus on Flexible Working? - The latest labour market statistics published this morning indicate that although the focus on health and employment may be right, the Work Foundation’s blog suggests that delivering meaningful change may require a focus on flexible work. Read their article here

Mental Health Crisis From Pandemic Was Minimal - study

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64890952           

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The NHS Health at Work Network brings together all OH teams providing health and wellbeing services to NHS OH staff.  It is dedicated to providing consistent, high quality health at work services to all NHS staff through collaborative working.

Members of OH teams in NHS Health at Work Network member organisations can receive the bulletin and access the restricted areas of the website as a membership benefit – if you are not sure of your login details email admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk   

Please share this bulletin with colleagues and encourage them to register to receive it regularly.  Non-Network members can also register to receive the monthly bulletin here.

You can contact the Network through your regional representative or as shown below.  Please get in touch if you have any queries or comments, if there is anything you would like to see in future issues of the bulletin, or if you have news to share.

Hilary Winch, Chair                                                 hilary.winch@nnuh.nhs.uk

Andrew Gilbey, General Manager                       admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk  

Postal address: NHS Health at Work, PO Box 857, York YO31 6FR